Discussion between films with producer-director James B. Harris and film historian Steven Jay Rubin, moderated by F.X. Feeney.

THE KILLING

1956,
Park Circus/MGM,
83 min,
Dir: Stanley Kubrick

Kubrick’s tough-as-nails heist film about a robbery at a racetrack features an incredible rogue’s gallery of great character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Elisha Cook Jr., Marie Windsor and Timothy Carey. One of the most entertaining crime films ever made, propelled by Kubrick’s no-nonsense approach and screenwriter Jim Thompson’s biting, chiseled-in-stone dialogue.

Longtime Kubrick producer James B. Harris made his directorial debut with this cautionary Cold War tale. Richard Widmark stars as the captain of the destroyer USS Bedford, which has located a Soviet submarine off the coast of Greenland. Though not at war, the captain insists on baiting the sub, to the increasing concern of his crew and visiting photojournalist Sidney Poitier.